Halle’s Smooooth Words o’ Wisdom

It’s raining hard here and the leaves are turning and beginning to drop.

Michelle and I are growing collards this year and decided to make some pepper sauce with serrano peppers and white vinegar to go with the greens. This bottle will brew for 6 weeks.

Resource Revival updated their site. Check it out!

Ej’s got a new blog.

Two weeks ago Michelle and I went for one of our favorite tours on Hood. The snow’s going fast. We decided to bail on a Mt. Shasta tour due to lack of snow there. A friend who spoke to a climbing ranger said that glacial ice was already appearing on many Shasta climbs and that our favorite route, the Hotlum-Wintun, was already suncupped near 10,000 ft. Last year we skied Shasta on the 4th of July and it was fantastic. Here’s to a better winter next season in the Sierra Nevada.

After 3 years in the ground our espalied pear tree finally bore fruit:

It did actually put a few on last year but, following instructions from a friend, we cut the fruit early in order to focus growth on the roots. Here’s to growing your own and not letting the dogs get to the goods before we do.

This is a fine piece of guerilla gardening.

Recently I received an email from my friend Graham. Graham’s a busy guy and doesn’t email often. Check out this cool video New Belgium Brewing produced and posted recently. It’s a fun piece on Resource Revival and its founder Graham Bergh. Dig the bees.

DISCLAIMER: I own RR shares.

This is not my photograph or design. This is an flyer I helped iron out when some resolution issues arose during printing. I made a few other tweaks as well. Come to the event if you’re in Portland and want to support a worthy cause, hear good music, drink tasty beer and meet good folks. Satyricon. Portland, Oregon. Tuesday, April 24, 2007. Be there or be a trapezoid.

We go way back. Kidding. This shot was taken sometime during the late ’90’s by my friend Katie Lain. I was hired by the DPO(Democratic Party of Oregon) to shoot some portraits during a fundraiser at Portland’s Hilton. Katie, a serious pop culture hound, spotted Tonya across the room and proceeded to freak.

“Oh my fucking god! Holy Crap! There she is. There’s Tonya. Tonya Harding,” she gushed. “You’ve got to get a shot of us.”

“No sweat,” I replied. Must admit I was a tad horrified never having imagined myself a paparazzo.

Katie walked over to the table where Ms. Harding sat. Beside her was her date: a southwest Washington cowboy apparently. Think Howdy Doodee in 10 gallon hat. Katie then turned, crouched and faced the camera. Her smile was that of a child having their picture snapped with Mickey at Disneyland for the first time. A big if somewhat nervous smile. The only problem was that the photo was going to consist of Katie, her grin plus the back of Tonya Harding’s head. I motioned that the picture wouldn’t work. Katie approached me. No smile this time.

“What the hell’s wrong?” she asked.
“Do you really want a picture of you and the back of Tonya Harding’s head?! Introduce youself. Make nice. Then we’ll have a picture,” I replied.
“Are you crazy! I can’t do that. No way. Noooooooo way,” Katie said.
I proceeded to crack a joke at Katie’s expense. She didn’t laugh and said, “Fine. You do it. I’ll take the goddamn picture then.”

Always up for a challenge I obliged, walked over and introduced myself. “Excuse me Ms. Harding. Would you mind if my fiancé snaps a photo of you and me?” I asked.

She was very kind and said yes. Still a bachelor at the time all I could think was, ‘Bingo. Christmas card. This picture is going to make one helluva Christmas card.’